Carnage: A policeman guards the narrowboat where a husband knifed to death his wife and best friend after catching them having sex

After the attack Cranston dialled 999 to call an ambulance and
confessed his crime, saying he had 'lost his rag', Reading Crown Court
heard.

Controllers gave him life-saving instructions over the phone and
then asked if the 'offender' was anywhere nearby. To which Cranston
calmly replied 'Yes, it's me. I stabbed them.'

The jury heard that the defendant had gone to sleep at the stern of
the boat but got up in the night after 'hearing a noise' and caught
Wilkins with his wife and his trousers around his ankles.

Cranston admitted stabbing the pair on September 7 last year before
disposing of the 6in kitchen knife but denies murder and claims he was
provoked.

The jury heard that Cranston and Ms Morton who owned the narrowboat
Secret were well known in the boating community on the Grand Union
Canal near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire. The court also heard they
had been going through a difficult time after the recent death of their
other young son in his sleep.

Earlier on the night of the attack, the three had been drinking with another friend Michael
Southern at the Three Locks pub nearby in Stoke Hammond where the
narrowboat was moored before returning to it to continue drinking. They
had each consumed about five pints.

Mr Gumpert said: 'He reported that there were two casualties with
stab wounds and, asked whether the attacker was still nearby, he said,
"Yes, it is me. I found my wife and one of my best friends s***ing and
I lost my rag and I just stabbed them."'

Police found Ms Morton and Mr Wilkins both dead on the floor in the 18m-long narrowboat's blood-soaked lounge area.

Cranston claimed he pushed the pair away when he confronted them -
without realising he had a knife in his hand. He said he could not
remember what happened.

'Mr Cranston surprised them while they were engaged in sexual activity,' prosecutor Mr Gumpert said.

'That was the trigger - the prosecution does not accept that he cannot remember the details of the killing.

'The prosecution suggests that he is unwilling to accept that he
killed his wife and his best friend. His absence of memory is more
comfortable than the one he would have to accept if he was being
truthful.'

Mr Gumpert added: 'The discovery of one's partner in an act of
sexual betrayal is not something which would cause a reasonable person
to have a sudden and temporary loss of self-control which led to the
stabbing of two people.'

Cranston is currently being held at Woodhill Prison, Milton Keynes.

The trial continues.

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I lost my rag, said man who stabbed wife and best friend to death after catching them in narrowboat sex romp